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enSun, 07 Jun 2020 05:10:11 -0500http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specificationAre We Overthinking Application Lifecycle Automation?https://www.nojitter.com/contact-center-customer-experience/are-we-overthinking-application-lifecycle-automation
In IT operations terms, an “application lifecycle” is the series of steps that an application takes from its initial deployment to its eventual withdrawal. Some reflect orderly upgrades to application components, and others respond to changes in how the app is used, to faults in the software, what it runs on, and how it’s connected. All of this stuff seems important, so we must explore why every enterprise isn’t jumping on the lifecycle automation bandwagon.

We’re now hearing that many vendors are looking to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to enterprise application lifecycle management. But are enterprises holding their breath for this revolution? Not the ones I talk with. In fact, the majority say they don’t think they need application lifecycle automation in any form. The contradiction between vendor focus and buyer interest seems to demand some exploration to uncover the truth.

One way to start is to look for what kind of factors might be common among those IT organizations that are happy with what they have. Three patterns come across in my contacts with them. First, they’re already using Kubernetes or a DevOps tool for deployment. Second, their applications consist of stateful components rather than stateless microservices or functions. Finally, their hosting and networking were based on pooled or shared resources such as the cloud or containers.

DevOps and container orchestration handle what’s called “deployment” and “redeployment.” In the cases of my contact enterprises, these mean “loading the application’s components onto hosts” and “reloading stuff that changes,” i.e., where software changes have been made. While there are tools or techniques to expand the redeployment concept to handle replacing things that have failed because of a hardware or network problem, those aren’t seen as major issues so far.

A combination of the second and third truths I uncovered seems to be the reason. Most applications today consist of a relatively small number of static components that run on resource pools that are already supported by management tools aimed at fixing problems. If a resource is broken these users say, “fix it.” Even where there is a value to reloading something that’s running on a failed resource, it’s possible to use a redeployment to fix it, and that can be initiated manually using DevOps or orchestration tools.

We can’t stop here, though. We need to look at what’s different about those enterprises that do think they need lifecycle automation. It turns out there are again three patterns. First, they’re heavy users of hybrid cloud applications. Second, their applications are business-critical and can’t stand even a short outage, and third, they have a large collection of microservices that are shared among applications. Third, they’ve done careful capacity planning to size their resource pools to their business load.

Where companies have a large web retail presence or significantly support remote or mobile workers (including the new work-from-home community), they typically tend to adopt hybrid cloud models, with a cloud front-end to mainstream applications. The needs that drove businesses to this decision continue to drive them to rapid, often massive, changes in the front-end elements.

The web-and-mobile wave also makes some enterprises entirely dependent on the online presentation of information to do business. If a web-based business goes down, there’s no backup pad of manual receipts for a salesperson to write out…you’re out of business. That makes remediation absolutely critical, and so these businesses tend to create capacity pools to ensure they don’t lose customers when they fail or when demand is high. Optimizing the use of these pools is a big driver of interest in lifecycle automation.

The question is how many enterprises fit each of these models? To figure that out, we’ll need a little math. To start with, fully half of all enterprises don’t have a cloud, web, or mobile application model because their business doesn’t have an online or mobile component. For this group of companies, the current deployment and redeployment strategy is fine, so take 50% of companies out of the lifecycle automation camp right away. The absent online or mobile emphasis, existing DevOps, and orchestration tools seem to work fine.

Of the half of companies who remain, about three quarters have already adopted the cloud-and-data-center online or mobile application model. These organizations are solving their operations issues by focusing on the dynamic part of their applications on cloud deployments and using cloud providers’ tools for automating responses to network or hosting failures. After all, that is what the cloud is all about – they don’t need new lifecycle automation either, so strike off another 75%.

That leaves us with a quarter of a half of enterprises, which is about 13%. These are the people who are clamoring for enterprise lifecycle automation, but 13% might be too small a market to justify a lot of vendor interest. That active seeker group sure thinks that’s the case because about a third of that group now believes that unless service providers or cloud providers drive a broader set of application lifecycle automation tools, we’ll never see them at all.

And perhaps that’s OK. We may not be overthinking lifecycle automation, but we’re likely overhyping it. Everything doesn’t have to be automated, and in some cases, automation attempts can introduce more complexity than they resolve. If you’re an enterprise, don’t feel left out if you’re not pushing for application lifecycle automation. You may be just where you need to be.

]]><a href="/event-type/enterprise-connect" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Enterprise Connect</a>Contact Center & Customer ExperienceAI & AutomationCloud CommunicationsDeployment ModelsHosted CommunicationsSystems Management & Network Designsite:License Global,nid:17238Fri, 29 May 2020 00:00:00 -0500Tom NolleLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/contact-center-customer-experience/are-we-overthinking-application-lifecycle-automationTelecom Fraud: Refuse to Be a Victimhttps://www.nojitter.com/security/telecom-fraud-refuse-be-victim
For enterprise communications managers pressed into supporting wholly work-from-home (WFH) workforces during this COVID-19 period of social distancing, the always-looming concern over telecom fraud — already accounting for $28 billion in loss annually — has reached a new level. In the U.S., for example, the Federal Communications Commission has linked an increase in spam robocalls to COVID-19 scams targeted at consumers and businesses, and the agency, along with the Federal Trade Commission, has issued warnings to VoIP providers allowing such calling.

Combatting spam robocalling, spoofing, and other types of telecom fraud takes a comprehensive fraud protection strategy, one that allows communications managers to identify, detect, and prevent telecom fraud before it creates financial damage. Additionally, communications managers need to be able to track activity at a glance, spot fraud trends, and gauge risks.

For such an all-encompassing approach to telecom fraud protection, consider Tata Communications. Via its multifaceted Fraud Prevention as a Service (FPaaS) offering, Tata offers:

Intelligent Fraud Management System — This standard capability, enabled for all interconnected customers, reports on and continuously monitors the activity of potentially suspicious or fraudulent traffic behaviors.

To support the automated management of alerts and blocks Tata offers a self-service Fraud Prevention Portal as part of the FPaaS portfolio. The portal offers easy access to establish and manage ad-hoc blocks and usage-based thresholds in near real time without manual intervention from Tata personnel. With such alerts, communications managers can head off financial exposure that may come from telecom fraud.

Tata provides the backing any business operation needs to rest easy regarding telecom fraud. Our numbers tell the story: for example, 6 million blocked fraud call attempts monthly; on average, more than 500 alerts sent monthly on suspicious traffic; and more than 200 entities disconnected in the last five years for bad performance, completing fraud traffic, spam, and spoofing. And, perhaps the most compelling aspect is that Tata’s FPaaS has prevented $800 million in potential fraud damage to partners in the last 12 months.

Visit us to learn more about how your organization can benefit from Tata’s award-winning FPaaS.

]]>SecurityCloud CommunicationsHosted CommunicationsManaged Servicestelecom fraudTata CommunicationsCOVID-19site:License Global,nid:17193Mon, 11 May 2020 00:00:00 -0500Robert Benolo, Tata CommunicationsLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/security/telecom-fraud-refuse-be-victimRethinking ‘Business as Usual’ Post-Pandemichttps://www.nojitter.com/cloud-communications/rethinking-business-usual-post-pandemic
Whether you’re an automobile manufacturer in Asia, a pharmaceutical in Europe, or a consumer-packaged goods provider in the U.S., your business has undoubtedly been turned upside down of late. Virtually every industry in every location has been impacted by COVID-19 social distancing requirements and overall lockdowns that has shuttered offices and business in one city after the next.

With employee safety the first and foremost concern, and limitations on movement keeping most people away from the office, work from home (WFH) has become the much-discussed new normal globally for employees and contact center agents alike. Organizations have rushed to support this newly distributed workforce as swiftly, seamlessly, and securely as possible to minimize business disruption.

It’s a tall order. Business users today have grown accustomed to collaborating with team members, partners, and customers from rich unified communications clients. Executives expect the ability to access financial data and other mission-critical data as needed, without delay. Contact center agents work best when they have ready access to customer information and the corporate knowledge base integrated into their dashboards. Working from home can throw this all into disarray, leading to a nosedive in employee productivity, poor customer service, compliance breakdowns, security breaches, lost business opportunities, and more.

Not surprisingly, organizations have addressed these challenges through a variety of strategies. Some have opted for scaling existing collaboration tools, while others have introduced new variants delivered from the cloud, and many are doing a mix of several options, often selected by end users. Tata Communications has worked with its partners to provide free WFH offers for collaboration services, and a variety of remote agent solutions to keep contact centres running in accordance with business, policy, and security requirements.

Such measures have been critical — and reasonably successful — in keeping business rolling in the immediate term, but there is a real sense that much work remains. In the coming weeks and months, we expect most organizations to assess how well these emergency measures, as well as their legacy tools and services, supported the business, and re-formulate their collaboration and business continuity strategies for the long term.

Responding to the COVID-19 crisis has allowed us to view things with a fresh perspective and discover opportunities. One big thing that has become clear is that new collaboration tools are very much good enough to enable productivity and to replace tried-and-true, but siloed, infrastructure and services, and that users will embrace them. Questions such as “Is cloud voice quality good enough for me to retire my IP telephony infrastructure?” or “Will my users adopt it?” will be largely resolved over the weeks of lockdown. In the contact center space, whole new strategies are emerging to deliver a rich digital customer experience in an environment where a retail visit is not an option and transaction volumes are high. This may have been a forced experiment, but many organizations will emerge from the current situation having identified and effectively piloted the technologies that can best address their requirements in the most challenging of circumstances.

The net result is that we may emerge from this crisis more willing to embrace change, and a clearer vision of how we want to do so. Whereas before the crisis, moving cautiously and sweating the existing assets as long as possible may have been viewed as a prudent, “low risk” strategy, many organizations will emerge from the ashes questioning the status quo. Having seen what the new stuff can do for their employees and their customers, they’ll be asking why not accelerate their strategy, embracing new technologies, and taking advantage of all the cloud has to offer. And having seen the limitations of their current technologies in a very real stress test, they will know that going back to the old way is not a viable option.

In this environment, we’re working with many of our customers to plan and start moving even before the dust settles, questioning all their legacy technologies and services and making the most of new options available. Just a few of the things we’re thinking about are:

Optimizing the network for remote connectivity across a distributed workforce and a greatly revised office footprint

Facilitating collaboration among employees, supply chain partners, and customers — from anywhere and on any device

Leveraging digital technologies to create a tremendous customer experience that can even differentiate the brand, whatever the transaction, and however the customer chooses to engage

Ensuring compliance to company policy, privacy laws, and all relevant regulations

Making sure everything is both scalable and secure as these changes are implemented

Obviously, the list could be a lot longer, and we find it’s unique for each business. The point is, challenging as the current environment may be, it is also creating unprecedented opportunities for change. As a partner, Tata Communications can help both with the immediate response to the crisis, and with capturing those longer-term opportunities so that your organization emerges from it stronger and more competitive than ever before. We expect a challenging business environment for some time to come, and we’re here to help you not only get through it, and but also to thrive beyond it.

Click here to discover how Tata can help shepherd you through your COVID-19 response.

]]><a href="/event-type/enterprise-connect" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Enterprise Connect</a>Cloud CommunicationsCCaaSCustomer ExperienceEmployee ExperienceHosted CommunicationsManaged ServicesWFHTata CommunicationsCOVID-19site:License Global,nid:17191Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00:00 -0500Peter Quinlan, Tata CommunicationsLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/cloud-communications/rethinking-business-usual-post-pandemicDon’t Stop at Engage... Empower Your WFH Employeeshttps://www.nojitter.com/team-collaboration-tools-workspaces/dont-stop-engage-empower-your-wfh-employees
Shelter-in-place orders spurred by the spread of COVID-19 have given rise to unprecedented numbers of people needing to set up home offices on the fly and businesses the world over scrambling to find ways to keep their employees connected and engaged.

Fortunately, leading enterprise communications providers have mature cloud-based UC solutions that don’t discriminate based on location. In other words, their UC-as-a-service (UCaaS) solutions will give your employees just what they need to keep collaborating from their homes just as if they were working in an office.

With an offering such as Microsoft Teams, for example, employees can chat with team members and other colleagues, as well as make phone calls, meet via video, and share content all via a single client.

Even better for businesses, especially during these trying times, is the ability to get such a solution as a fully-managed service from a global network provider such as Tata Communications. Using a managed Teams service, for example, you can offload the onus of making sure nothing impacts communications and collaboration capabilities or inhibits employee productivity.

And, because Tata owns the global network and can watch over the solutions end to end, we can minimize incidents your employees might encounter. What’s more, we can support them 24/7, globally. For IT, benefits include:

Single point of accountability for licensing, devices, voice, and meetings

Ability to eliminate redundant licenses

Proactive monitoring and robust reporting that assures complete visibility and control

Dedicated program management, customer success management, and service assurance throughout the lifecycle of your deployment

To help during this crisis period, Tata has put in place a rapid-response program that allows businesses to maximize the use of Teams for their newly remote workforces without making a financial commitment — at no cost during a 30-day trial period. With its managed service, Tata will enable you to spin up a WFH workforce, overseeing tenant and user onboarding and adoption globally. Tata offers Direct Routing and PSTN replacement with domestic voice coverage across 27 countries, toll-free coverage in 112 countries, local number support in 63 countries, and international calling in 220 countries. In addition, the rapid-response program allows businesses the ability to use enterprise-grade global voice and video support for Microsoft's Teams Rooms meeting solution.

Don’t just enable your employees to work from home... empower them with a fully-managed Microsoft Teams services. Sign up for a free trial!

]]>Team Collaboration Tools & WorkspacesCloud CommunicationsDigital WorkplaceEmployee ExperienceHosted CommunicationsUCaaSCOVID-19remote workMicrosoft Teamssite:License Global,nid:17131Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 -0500Paul McMillan, Tata CommunicationsLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/team-collaboration-tools-workspaces/dont-stop-engage-empower-your-wfh-employees CenturyLink Held Accountable in Coloradohttps://www.nojitter.com/best-practices/centurylink-held-accountable-colorado
Kudos to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and his team for shining a bright light on the long-standing, shady process communications carriers have relied on to generate lines of revenue that masquerade as government-mandated assessments. In response to many consumer complaints about deceptive billing practices, the Colorado AG’s office began investigating CenturyLink’s practices in 2017 and ended up looking as far back as 2014 to find “systematic…and deceptive overcharges” to consumers. In a December 2019 consent decree, the attorney general let carriers know in no uncertain terms that their deceptive practices are unwelcome and unnecessary.

Heart of the Matter

These assessments, in the form of undefined or deceptively labeled surcharges and fees, are often more than 40% of the quoted rates. On top of raising the overall service price, because they’re classified as surcharges and fees, they’re also subject to sales tax. Little wonder this practice has long been the bane of communications managers and the consultants and attorneys who advise them.

Under the terms of agreement, CenturyLink will pay $8.5 million in settlement fees, with $1.7 million directed to affected consumers and a $6.8 million penalty paid to the state for violating the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. It’s important to note that the settlement is limited to two groups of Colorado consumers — residential and small business (defined as businesses with 10 or fewer employees and with less than $2,000 in monthly recurring charges). I’m optimistic that this settlement could be a bellwether for providers and enterprise consumers alike. Prices are not likely to come down, but it is to be hoped that deceptive practices, which certainly have run rampant since — and likely before — MCI’s malfeasance two decades ago, could be curtailed. Eliminated? Unlikely. Less aggressive? That’s precisely where some public shaming and an $8 million penalty might do the trick.

Root of the Problem

Years ago, before anyone knew what MCI was doing, and back when traditional long-distance services existed, providers would offer enterprise consumers various per-minute rates. These often ranged between five to eight cents per minute. MCI started offering similar services at the much lower rate of about one to two cents per minute. Competitors didn’t know how MCI managed to do this, but they had the obligation to balance their books and provide valued shareholder returns. So, creatively, they matched MCI’s per-minute pricing…while figuring out that they could use property tax allocation to “recapture” the lost income.

It was simply a way for providers, behaving honestly, to make up the difference in cost that each was forced to give away on the per-minute portion of the bill. It looked and sounded like a tax (a bit smarmy perhaps on the carriers’ parts, but an effective tool essential to balance the books) but wasn’t. It was simply revenue recapture, and it enabled big providers to remain competitive at a time when each was struggling for market share and profitability.

After MCI’s collapse in 2006, the carriers that had conceived this creatively named line item saw no reason to eliminate it, since it provided valuable revenue. It reminds me a bit of the checked baggage fees some airlines charge, but others don’t. Why give up a revenue stream—unpopular as it may be—when it’s doing the job of making money? On a final note, while the property tax allocations, or whatever name the providers choose to give them, may look like taxes—they in fact aren’t—and you know this, because they’re subject to sales tax.

Food for Thought

Often when I negotiate for services (or hotel rooms, for that matter), I insist on knowing what the actual monthly expense will be. I’d much prefer to know upfront what the real costs will be rather than be unpleasantly surprised when the bill arrives. Most enterprise consumers, I suspect, feel the same way – tell them what the service costs and they can each decide if the offering is worth the price or not. But don’t say that the service costs X when instead it’s X plus 40%. That’s deceptive and wrong.

So, I always ask a potential vendor not only to provide me a listing of the taxes, surcharges, and fees that it will assess but also for notification when those rates change. In one case several years ago, I had to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission to get a major vendor to disclose just its list of these charges. Interestingly, the vendor was seeking approval for an acquisition by a larger provider, and luckily for my client, that was held up until resolution of my matter. It was, and the acquisition went through, but it was only after significant struggle that the vendor would even release the list of taxes, surcharges and fees, let alone agree to provide updates and access to the information regarding those charges.

In any case, congratulations to the Colorado AG and his team for shining a bright light into this very dark place. The judgment doesn’t solve all problems, but it makes a giant leap forward in holding providers accountable for bad conduct.

]]><a href="/event-type/enterprise-connect" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Enterprise Connect</a>Best PracticesAnalyst InsightHosted CommunicationsManaged ServicesRegulationUCaaSVendor StrategyCenturyLinkMCIsite:License Global,nid:17006Fri, 28 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0600Martha BuyerLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/best-practices/centurylink-held-accountable-coloradoThink Data, Not Endpoints for IoT Valuehttps://www.nojitter.com/internet-things/think-data-not-endpoints-iot-value
You’ve already been using a multifold of sensors and actuators in your network for years. Therefore, you’ve already been dealing with Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints. The number and application of new IoT endpoints, however, is exploding. It’s time to realign focus from the devices to the data produced, and the actions taken in response to that data.

From Products to Data

There is a tremendous assortment of intelligent IoT endpoints and applications. IoT endpoints have embedded processors with individual identities that can sense changes, locate positions, process data, make decisions, and communicate this information and decisions to another system or service to be acted upon and produce responses. Smart products require applications to fulfill the goals of the designers and users. They must merge with other technologies such as wireless and social networks, cloud computing, and data analytics. From a management perspective, IoT success solely depends on technology. The integration of multiple technologies leads users to enable or subscribe to data-driven services.

The enterprise needs to focus more on the data than on the endpoint — the point of IoT, after all, is to collect and respond to data. The thought process is a transformation toward the digitization of the enterprise. Knowledge gained from IoT endpoints leads to new service offerings while embedding IoT technology into internal machines and operating systems can lead to process optimization and efficiency and safety improvements.

Business Model Influence

The continuous delivery of data from IoT endpoints can lead to a subscription-based revenue stream, not a one-time payment.

Customers need to be more involved in service and value creation. That, in turn, changes the enterprise customer relationship. The significant activity is to convert data into value. The enterprise must implement appropriate digital platforms. The services offered will have to be priced with new cost structures. The enterprise’s internal organizational units will need to be modified or entirely restructured to support the new services.

The enterprise-to-customer relationship will change from a traditional buyer-seller relationship to a more complex relationship that operates as a partnership. If the data value produces financial and business results, then the buyer-seller relationship will improve, and buyer loyalty cemented.

]]>Internet of ThingsAI & AutomationAnalyst InsightEndpointsEnterprise NetworkingHosted CommunicationsTechnology Trendssite:License Global,nid:16988Fri, 21 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0600Gary AudinLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/internet-things/think-data-not-endpoints-iot-valueHas the ‘Focus on Growth’ Mantra Come to a Head in UC?https://www.nojitter.com/analyst-insight/has-focus-growth-mantra-come-head-uc
For almost two decades, investors have rewarded cloud providers for growth, creating many businesses with strong defensive barriers. The poster children for this strategy include Amazon and Salesforce, each of which has redirected potential profits to define a new business sector that it has come to dominate. Unlike other sectors, profit was secondary to growth, as in first things first and second things never.

Delaying profits is hardly a new idea, but the concept was exaggerated with cloud-delivered services. Cloud dynamics accelerate valuations. However, over the past few weeks, we’ve seen that growth isn’t enough anymore.

Profits Become a Priority

In the broader market, we’ve seen several high-profile startups, such as Peloton, Uber, and Lyft, struggle after their initial public offerings. WeWork’s attempt to go public completely failed. It seemed that the growth-only mantra is also no longer a surefire way to build a new cloud-related business. The new rule is the old rule: profitability matters.

It’s not just a change in priority; it’s an acknowledgment that growth rates are slowing. This shouldn’t be too big of a shock. Cloud-delivered services are still strategic and viable, but the sector is maturing with larger providers and increased competition. Today, “cloud communications” is a redundant term; just about every vendor is also a cloud provider, and the competitive landscape includes the largest companies in technology like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. So, of course, growth rates are slowing.

There’s also increased concern over economic uncertainty. For the first time in U.S. history, a decade will pass without the country falling into recession. How much longer the good times will last is the proverbial $64 million question. There’s a nagging sense of an imminent correction that could be triggered by any or multiple events such as Brexit, impeachment, trade wars, terror, U.S. debt, and more. The benefits of cloud-delivered services remain attractive or even more attractive in recessionary times, but they aren’t immune to recessions causing wallets to lock tight.

The Cloud Market Responds

The new rules mean that providers must prioritize profitability, and this swing was visible last week at BlueJeans. Business Insider reported that the company laid off 40% of its workforce in order to prioritize a rapid transition to profitability. In a blog post, BlueJeans CEO Quentin Gallivan said the company would become "profitable and operating cash flow positive over the next few months."

We can also see the shift at Ooma Networks. The company reported its first-ever quarterly profit (Q3 2020). The company beat expectations on profitability and growth, and share prices increased 24% the following day. Ooma’s business products division increased revenue by 67% through growing both subscribers and average revenue per user.

CEO Eric Stang communicated that Ooma will remain profitable, and Ooma also raised its full-year revenue guidance. Stang expects Ooma to continue growing because of recent foundational changes such as its recently refined core product/service offering, integrated acquisitions of Voxter and Broadsmart, and newly launched Ooma Office Pro for small businesses.

That detailed explanation regarding growth is also a new development. Growth now needs to be explained with more than "more salespeople." For example, Zoom reported both profits and growth higher than expectations but saw a decline in its share price because it also reported a decelerating growth rate. CEO Eric Yuan explained that new products (Zoom Phone) and new markets will continue to fuel Zoom’s growth. He said Zoom already supports Chinese local numbers and expects sales will expand across Europe and APAC markets.

There are no golden rules, and valuation and stock price changes thrive on exceptions. Consider Slack: It remains unprofitable, yet saw its stock increase after its recent Q3 2020 results. Slack increased revenue 60% to $168.7 million and ended its Q3 with 821 customers that were contributing more than $100,000 in recurring revenue, up 67% from the previous year. Investors seem to agree that Slack needs to continue to focus on growth. Also, its stock boost was still recovering from a disastrous Q2.

As far as technical solutions go, nothing has really changed. The market will continue to migrate from premises-based to cloud-delivered solutions. What did change was the game plan that most providers will be following. They are now expected to behave better and balance the business goals of growth and profits.

]]>Analyst InsightCloud CommunicationsHosted CommunicationsIndepthIndustry NewsSlackZoomindustry insightsite:License Global,nid:16818Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:00:00 -0600Dave MichelsLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/analyst-insight/has-focus-growth-mantra-come-head-uc4 Ways to Keep Your Cloud Licenses Compliant https://www.nojitter.com/cloud-communications/4-ways-keep-your-cloud-licenses-compliant
On Aug. 1, under the guise of easing management, Microsoft announced several significant licensing changes for its on-prem and cloud-based services. Starting with launch of its Azure Dedicated Host services and Azure Hybrid Benefits program, Microsoft changed its definition of outsourcing on-prem software licenses being hosted on some of its biggest rivals (Amazon Web Services, Alibaba, etc.). After Oct. 1, the often-touted cost benefits of using a bring-your-own-licensing (BYOL) model for Microsoft software in the public cloud will fall, victims of monetization, and it’s striking fear in the hearts and budgets of enterprise IT.

Let’s be honest, this isn’t an unexpected move by Microsoft -- nor would it be for any of the major hosted providers. Licensing has become a highly complex dance as the cloud era matures, creating a challenge for enterprise data centers.

Basic Models for Cloud Licensing

Just a few short years ago, licensing in the cloud was far less complex. With four basic models and the ability to connect with a wide variety of vendors of choice, often the only concern was cloud platform compatibility. As market competition matured, licensing costs, metrics, and terms became as varied as the providers that market them.

That isn’t to say the four basic models have gone away. At the highest levels, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) to software as a service (SaaS), cloud licensing typically follows these models (although vendors may have their own “names,” such as component, for them):

Usage Based – Based on the amount of resources consumed and often the foundation of storage, virtual machine space, etc.

Instance Based – Based on the number of CPU cores and/servers (either physical or virtual)

Subscription Based – Based on the term length and number of users accessing the software

BYOL — Taking on-prem licenses already owned or purchased into a cloud environment for use

Will usage-based licensing bill to the closest second or minute — or is it structured to round to the nearest hour? What add-on features will you need to activate, and even more important, how easy is it for users to inadvertently engage unauthorized features?

How many cores (physical or virtual) will you have access to with your instance-based license, and what are the vendor minimums for core licensing? Do you need reserved instances for mission-critical applications or auto-scalability or will an on-demand environment in the public cloud suffice? If on-demand works, what controls will you secure from the public cloud provider for movement of licenses among its cores to ensure that you’ve disclosed the necessary number of licenses?

What geographic restrictions apply to your subscription-based licenses, and will those affect performance or usability to your users? How many additional subscription licenses will you need to account for seats or named users that were previously pooled on a server-based, on-prem environment?

Do the on-prem licenses you’re taking to the cloud carry restrictions or prohibitions against outsourcing or co-locating? Are they platform compatible?

Can you consider integrated system licensing – leveraging your current on-prem or partner-based licenses – to gain additional discounts? Can non-critical applications run at off-peak times to leverage cost savings with your cloud provider?

As these are basic, non-vendor specific considerations for licensing, it’s easy to see how complex the cloud licensing environment is to navigate during procurement and how difficult it’s to remain compliant once deployed.

4 Steps to Maintain Cloud Compliancy

But fear not! There are ways to keep on the right side of ever-changing license conditions to remain as compliant as possible. While none of this is really “new” to data center pros, a few of them – especially the first and second one – bear repeating:

Restrict user software download permissions, and log all downloads. Whether a seasoned IT professional downloading software into a sandbox for environment testing or an analyst looking for an easy way to model data, users have become blind to click-through licensing agreements – and software vendors know it. A 30-day free trial to get the exact software the user wants right now? “Accept.” Failure to remove it in 30 days? You’re out of compliance, and many times, subject to a vendor audit.

Sync license renewals – all of them. It’s worth the time and energy expended to negotiate and pay the appropriate fees to sync up every available license – on-prem or in the cloud – to a targeted timeframe. From the data center to the desktop, in most enterprises, this can be a costly proposition and generate a large initial expenditure, but it will also ensure that no license is left behind to generate a large vendor penalty, loss of use, or hefty re-renewal payment.

Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. From true-up provisions extending the amount of time to allow compliance without adding extra cost, to vendor license movement restrictions to limiting cores, use the leverage of the procurement process to mitigate as many risks as possible at the outset.

Audit your ecosystem, before your vendor does. Given the complexity and flexibility of licensing, and the ease with which new services can be spun up or down, make it a practice to run internal licensing and software asset management audits regularly. Whether you deploy an internally written script, engage an audit consultant, or purchase any number of applications to crawl your system, the cost of regular internal audits is significantly cheaper than being found out of licensing compliance.

Ultimately, navigating cloud licensing and its implications isn’t for the faint of heart. Microsoft’s shot across the bow of hosted/outsourced BYOL is just the latest in a long line of rapid, enterprise-affecting changes. As a result, oftentimes enterprises choose to rely solely on their vendors to present proper licensing metrics, appropriate features, and discount opportunities that align with enterprise cloud strategies and architecture. Recognizing that this allows “the cat in the hen house,” IT leaders often feel as if their options are limited. As Microsoft has shown, these feelings just might be validated.

"SCTC Perspectives" is written by members of the Society of Communications Technology Consultants, an international organization of independent information and communications technology professionals serving clients in all business sectors and government worldwide.

]]>Cloud CommunicationsConsultant PerspectivesEnterprise NetworkingHosted Communicationscloud communicationscloud auditSCTCcompliancelicensingMicrosoftsite:License Global,nid:16428Wed, 14 Aug 2019 00:00:00 -0500Joyce OsenbaughLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/cloud-communications/4-ways-keep-your-cloud-licenses-compliantAvaya Containerizes UCaaShttps://www.nojitter.com/ucaas/avaya-containerizes-ucaas
At the Latin America version of Avaya Engage, in Mexico City, Avaya last week announced the newest member of its UCaaS family. Powered By Avaya IX (aka IP Office) now runs as a set of containerized workloads on Google Cloud Platform. This solution has a number of similarities to -- as well as a few major differences from -- the virtual machine (VM)-based “Powered By” offering.

This Powered By version uses the same IP Office software, desk phones, and softphones as the VM version, and has the same levels of tier three and four support from Avaya. In addition, as with the earlier version, partners selling it need to provide SIP trunking services and network connectivity, as well as take care of the billing and tier one and two support.

As to the differences, the main ones are 1) that the software runs in containers instead of a VM and 2) Avaya hosts the software on Google Cloud infrastructure. With the virtual edition, partners provide the hosting infrastructure.

The software workloads run in containers, so the resource requirements are much lower than they are with VMs. The lightweight nature of containers enables Avaya to sell its cloud service to very small businesses -- fewer than 20 seats -- that it couldn’t serve with costlier VM-based offering.

Avaya's Powered By IX architecture

This version of Powered By follows the natural evolution of IP Office, which came to market more than 15 years ago as a proprietary hardware platform. Next came Server Edition, which saw the product ported to Linux so it could run on off-the-shelf servers and provide greater scalability. The Linux-based version is also what led to Avaya being able to run the rich IP Office feature set in a VM. The newest iteration, containerization, is a cloud-native model that can start small and scale massively.

Containers bring flexibility and agility but introduce more management complexity for partners. With the virtual edition, the entire workload runs in just a few VMs that operate perpetually. With containers, the application is disaggregated into dozens or even hundreds of smaller components that are constantly being spun up and down as needed. Keeping track of and managing the larger number of containers can be very difficult. To alleviate the pain, Avaya has enhanced its Cloud Operations Manager to allow for centralized and automated management, patching, and upgrades of multiple systems so these tasks don’t need to be handled one workload at a time.

Lastly, automated order processing that comes with the containerized option means a partner can have a service up and running in just a few minutes. The order placement triggers API calls that automatically spin up the necessary containers in the Google Cloud. This is a stark juxtaposition from the virtual edition, which takes hours to get up and running.

Considering that Google typically doesn’t allow resellers or vendors to host phone and other regulated services on its cloud platform, the ability to offer a containerized version of IP Office in the Google cloud is a big win for Avaya. Given the longtime relationship Avaya has had with Google, it seems to have gotten an exemption so that it can resell its UC server to partners or wholesale it to any company that wants to build a service around the containerized option.

The ability to run in containers opens other future go-to-market avenues for Avaya. It should be able to use the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to make the workloads portable, simplifying the process of porting it to Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure if it so chooses. Also, partners that want to run this as a private cloud option can leverage GKE on premises to run Avaya IX UC on bare metal or an engineered system, like the Google Anthos.

Following a controlled release, the container version of Powered by IX became generally available in April. At time of last week’s announcement, Avaya is hosting the service in the 14 countries Google has clusters in and said it will expand as Google does. From these data centers, the service is available in 24 countries. The number of countries will grow as Avaya receives legal approval.

I expect the new Powered By Avaya IX to be an attractive option for SMBs. IP Office has been very popular in that segment and now those businesses have a simple, fast way to buy it as a cloud service.

]]>UCaaSCloud CommunicationsDeployment ModelsHosted CommunicationsProduct NewsVendor StrategyGoogle Cloud PlatformAvaya Powered Bycontainerssite:License Global,nid:16273Mon, 03 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0500Zeus KerravalaLicense GlobalNews &amp; Viewsenhttps://www.nojitter.com/ucaas/avaya-containerizes-ucaas‘XaaS’ Has a Role to Play in a Multi-UCaaS Worldhttps://www.nojitter.com/ucaas/%E2%80%98xaas%E2%80%99-has-role-play-multi-ucaas-world
Traditional enterprise IT’s standard method of operations is to support a single enterprise solution. Instead of fighting the trend of a multi-UC platform environment, IT should embrace the reality that not one UC platform meets the cost, feature, security, and performance requirements for all use cases. As part of this multivendor strategy, enterprises should embrace services that support UC in the cloud for interoperability, additional security, and overall manageability.

For UC, a sampling of such services, let’s call them XaaS, includes:

SBCaaS -- Traditionally an enterprise session border controller (SBC) has been the demarcation point between the network service provider and an on-premises platform. SBCs provide interoperability, security, and supportability between different UC platforms. So as UC goes to the cloud and more users are mobile and not on the corporate network, it only makes since that SBCs move into the cloud. Common use cases include providing transcoding resources between platforms such as G.729 from Cisco on-premises platforms to G.711 for Microsoft Skype for Business/Teams. A quick Google search shows Ribbon Communications offering SBCaaS through many of its partners.

911aaS -- 911 is tricky to implement, especially on software UC clients where the user’s physical location can be anywhere. Many enterprises don’t provide 911 on their UC clients; they tell the caller to hang up and dial 911 from a hard phone or cell phone. This isn’t all bad, since many 911 calls from enterprises are mistakes (dial 9 for an outside line, 1 for long distance, then another 1 in error). Regardless, look for a cloud 911 system from West and another vendor that supports many different platforms.

CAaaS, or call authentication as a service -- While basic telephony security is aimed at mitigating things such as telephony denial-of-service attacks, robo-calling and call spoofing are becoming more prevalent threats. More enterprises are reporting robo-calls coming into the enterprise and tying up network and telephony resources. Cloud-delivered call authentication services can block these calls before they get into the enterprise. The nice thing about these CAaaS solutions is that they can provide different levels of authentication based on business risks and call origination or destination. See graphic below for an overview of a CAaaS from SecureLogix, a well-known vendor in this space.

How the SecureLogix Call Authentication Service works

An enterprise can consume XaaS in multiple ways. These include:

Hosted -- A service provider hosted solution for which a single instance of the platform or application is reserved specifically to an enterprise. This could be sold on a subscription basis or perpetual license basis.

Service -- A service provider cloud solution that is designed to take advantage of the economies of scale by using shared resources. In this model, application management and usage capacity is primarily sold to an enterprise on a subscription basis. The term of that subscription could range anywhere from instantaneous (serverless) to hours to days to months or yearly.

Virtual Function -- This entails getting rid of hardware appliances and running the application in a private or public cloud for management from anywhere by the enterprise.

At some point, most telephony managers are going to be asked to stop robo-calling from getting into the enterprise. How long from the time of request to time of implementation will largely depend how well IT is prepared to adopt cloud services.